A Seaside Ghost Story
by Antigone2
Summary: Minako wanted Hawaii for her vacation, but ended up in a boring seaside town in Japan instead. What's a gorgeous recent high school grad to do? Well, throw in a hot lifeguard, an old house with a tragic history, the house's ditzy caretaker and a possible ghost... and suddenly her trip isn't looking so boring after all!
1. Chapter 1

notes: this is something a little different for me, but I've always wanted to try my hand at a ghost story and who else but Minako would be the most intrepid ghost hunter out there? This is sort of inspired by the theme of the sen/shi minibang (seashore) but it's not part of the bang, just something that came into my head! Please let me know what you think, and stick around because the story is finished and will be updated weekly until the thrilling (lol) conclusion.

Thanks to my beta, and my fandom friends!

* * *

In her mind, Minako was walking, nay, floating along the beach, her long blonde hair trailing behind her in the wind, her athletic, youthful body swathed in a skimpy string bikini making heads turn. Palm trees swayed above her and if she listened just hard enough, she could hear strains of Hawaiian hula music and smell coconut. The perfect tropical vacation to celebrate graduating high school last month.

Then she stumbled a bit over the towel that was unraveling quickly in her arm and it all went to hell. She wasn't in Hawaii, she was in Japan, at a beach town not nearly far enough away from her Tokyo home. It wasn't coconut she was smelling, but fish and salt, and the hula music was a staticky radio from someone's nearby beach blanket.

Although she was in a skimpy bikini, she was making heads turn more by attempting to lug a blanket, beach umbrella, chair, and a large colorful bag full of suntan lotion, water bottles, romance novels, and other beach necessities, all by herself along the beach. The big floppy straw hat which had looked so summery and beachy chic in the boutique in Harajuku was now held in her teeth, as the wind kept blowing it right off her head. She kept stumbling and dropping things and sand was everywhere and…

_Oh._

If her mouth wasn't currently busy keeping her hat from being lost to the ocean, her jaw would've dropped. Because the man currently climbing the lifeguard tower wasn't just a snack, he was an entire three-course meal, plus dessert.

Tanned skin, lifeguard whistle bouncing off perfect pecs, toned legs emerging from those red swim trunks, a rippling six pack and … Minako let her eyes travel up to the most striking ice-blue eyes she'd ever seen.

Looking right back at her.

Well, shit. Minako dropped her blanket and towel.

"Looks like you could use some help with that," he said, smooth bass sending chills into her stomach. Some strands of blond hair were escaping from the beach-safe low bun he'd tied it back into, breathtaking against the dark tan of his skin.

Taking the hat out of her mouth, Minako sputtered, "Well, are you gonna help?"

He scoffed down at her. "I'm on duty." He settled himself in the chair and Minako made a face at him when he couldn't see.

Maybe the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen, but kind of a dick. Well, at least it was eye candy.

Setting up her beach umbrella took some doing, and when she was done Minako decided to go take a dip in the water before coming back to sunbathe. She took the path in front of the lifeguard station, just in case, but didn't dare look back to see if her ass was distracting Hot Lifeguard from possible drowning victims.

Swimming alone in the ocean wasn't that fun, Minako reflected, missing her former classmates to splash and shriek with… the ones who had gone to Hawaii on the trip she couldn't afford. Shaking that depressing thought from her head, Minako floated onto her back in the calmer waters past the waves, looking at the rocks and jetties that jutted out past the public beach.

A strange, western-style mansion caught her eye, looming up from the shoreline about a mile down the beach. It was clearly private, surrounded by grasses and bramble that signaled the end of the maintained area much earlier along the beach. Flipping around, Minako swam toward shore, shaking off a sudden chill.

She had sunbathed for a while and finished a few chapters of _Quenching The Firefighter's Flame_ when "Look out!" rang across the beach. Minako turned to see a white blur sailing at her head and deftly caught the volleyball, raising her brow at the group of five guys set up around the net on nearby packed sand.

"Little help?" one of them asked, gesturing for her to throw it back. Well, they were pretty cute.

Minako smirked. "Your teams are uneven, need a sixth?" She sauntered her back over to the side of the net where her two new teammates shared a condescending eye-roll. "My serve!"

The competition was mediocre at best, and she easily spiked the ball down onto the sand multiple times, and saved her side from losing with a jump or perfectly timed dive. After the game, she went to high-five her teammates and they grouchily shook their heads and left, taking their ball with them. "Lost to a girl…" one of the tall ones was muttering and Minako seethed a bit.

Had she thought they were cute? Skinny little creeps, that's what they were. She huffed back to her blanket, not even noticing the Hot Lifeguard giving her the smallest, impressed smile as she stomped past the lifeguard stand.

Minako decided she had enough of the beach for that day, and started packing up her station. The lifeguard, she noticed, was switching shifts and hopped off the last rung of the ladder. He watched her struggle with her umbrella and bag and towel while he leaned against the station.

"You could help," Minako snapped at him. "Rather than just stare."

"I'm on my break."

She glared and took a moment to catch her breath, eyes scanning the horizon to avoid staring at Hot Lifeguard's abs. "So, what's the deal with that weird manson? Someone famous live here or something?"

Hot Lifeguard followed her gaze. "It's been empty as far as I can remember. Some rich European businessman built it back in Meiji, but it's been empty since his daughter threw herself into the ocean over a jilted love affair."

Minako didn't think her eyes could get larger as she looked at him to gauge if he was messing with her or not. "Seriously?"

He shrugged. "Kids dare each other to go there in high school because it's supposedly haunted."

"With the jilted love affair European daughter?!" This was better than her romance novels.

"Don't go up there," his voice was warning and she turned and gave him a very-innocent 'who me?' face. "It's dangerous, overgrown and falling apart. The last thing we need is a tourist getting hurt so early in season."

"Thanks for your concern, I'm touched," Minako put a sarcastic hand to her heart, and was pleased to see the smallest of smiles tug at his lips. "I'm Aino Minako by the way."

"Rou Kunzite," he said, but he still made no move to help her with her belongings as she huffed and puffed back up the beach… refusing to turn around and see if he was watching her.

* * *

The next day, Minako threw on shorts and sneakers instead of her bikini, determined to check out the awesome old mansion and gather a few stories for future galas once she was famous.

She'd slept in, so the sun was already high in the sky and scorchingly hot when she started hiking up the road where the house squatted over the Japanese beach town like an out-of-place amusement park ride. The road leading up to the ridge was closed, with a sign saying to please keep out, which Minako duly noted before climbing over it.

In the past, there would have been a lovely walkway up to the house and possibly a manicured lawn and English-style garden, but all that was left now was bramble and overgrown ivy and weeds. Surrounded by vegetation, the sounds of the beach seemed to fade away to the buzz of the cicadas and the distant cawing of some crows. Minako snapped some photos with her phone, for posterity. She also noticed she had zero bars of service up here.

The house was mostly Western in style, with a Japanese roof and entrance, it looked like from outside. Minako knelt down and rubbed the moss off the stone nameplate. It was in kana, strange for an official address but she remembered Hot Lifegu- erm, Kunzite saying they were European. 'Conway', she read out loud, and a cold wind seemed to blow by at that very moment. She realized the cicadas had gone silent.

Suddenly feeling like she was being watched, Minako stood and turned around quickly, eyes glancing around the unfamiliar property. She heard a creak from behind the closed entrance of the house, and a few chilling thumps like the sound of someone slowly, heavily, moving down stairs.

"Hello?" she called out, hoping it was a local kid pulling a prank. She was still standing on the front step when the front door slowly creaked open, and the worst wet, rotten smell hit Minako like a brick. She cried out, taking a few quick steps backward and walking hard into a wrought iron fence.

"Oh gosh! Are you okay?!" Someone was coming around from the side garden, and Minako turned and looked over in surprise. The girl appeared to be no older than Minako herself, dressed a sundress and holding a bucket full of gardening supplies.

"I'm fine," Minako straightened up, looked at the house again - surprised to see the door now closed. "I just… thought I saw something."

The girl giggled a little. "This house can be so spooky." She held out her hand, dimpling a pretty smile at Minako. "My name is Usagi."

"Minako," she answered, reaching out and shaking Usagi's hand.

"Sorry my hands are dirty, I was trying to figure out how to get the flowers to bloom, but I don't really have a green thumb," Usagi said, brushing blonde bangs from her sweaty head. "I'm actually kind of disaster with everything I'm trying to do here!"

"What… are you trying to do?" Minako asked, brows knitting. Kunzite had said the property was abandoned. "You… you don't _live_ here, do you?" She thought of the smell from the doorway, the whispers she swore she heard from the darkness of the hallway, the unsettling feeling that had seeped into her bones the moment she set foot on the property.

Usagi laughed when she saw Minako's face. "I know, it's not exactly the Imperial Palace, but it's not bad." She bounced up the steps to the front door, dropping her bucket on the porch area and opening the door. This time, it opened out into a decently lit hallway and it smelled only slightly musty. "Want to come in?"

It was definitely an old place, unlived in for a long time. There were water stains on the walls and peeling wallpaper and the light fixtures looked like gas lamps. But all the windows were open and Usagi had a radio playing in the airy room that Minako guessed might be off what was the kitchen. She'd stripped most of the wallpaper and opened the windows to face the ocean. It was almost cheerful in this corner of the house.

Soon they were settled across each other on a wooden table, empty tea cups in front of them, (Usagi fumbled with the hot plate she was boiling water on, until Minako - fearing injury from boiling water - told Usagi not to worry about tea. It was such a hot day, anyway.)

"So did you buy this place?"

"No, no," Usagi said, shaking her head so her blonde pigtails swished to either side of her. "I'm not the owner."

"Caretaker? You seem so young!"

"It's just 'til the owners get here. I don't mind. I'm not exactly um, fantastic at all my endeavors?" She shrugged, sheepishly. "But stay in a house? That's a job I can do."

"It doesn't scare you?" she found herself blurting out and Usagi tilted her head to the side, knitting her brows.

"Scare me? Why?"

"I mean, they say it's haunted…" Of course 'they' was just one guy, a Hot Lifeguard whom Minako made a mental note to pump Usagi for information on later - if she was a townie and he was, maybe they knew either other!

"Haunted?" Usagi asked, leaning forward a bit. She went a bit pale and glanced around like the place might be bugged. "That might actually explain some things…" She twisted a strand of hair around her finger. "Like, noises I can't explain and doors and windows opening and closing."

"You don't sleep here at night, do you?"

"Yeah…"

"Usagi! It must be terrifying!"

"I guess…" Usagi still looked slightly perplexed, as if she was considering that now she ought to be more frightened than she had been. "Why do they say it's haunted?"

"The previous owner had a daughter, who threw herself into the sea for her unrequited love," Minako said dramatically. That may not, actually, be the story, she hadn't bothered to confirm it, but it sounded good.

Usagi let out a breath, shivering a little. She looked around her like she was seeing the place with new eyes. "That's… awful."

Minako kicked herself, reminding herself that not everyone adored a good haunted house story, and she'd probably just traumatized the poor girl who had to live here for the summer!

She grabbed Usagi's arm and squeezed in a friendly gesture. "I have an idea! Let's go into town! You can show me all the cool places to shop."

Usagi blinked at her, like she was still wrapped up in the history of the house Minako had told her. Then she shook her head, as if to clear it, and a beatific smile broke across her face. "I have a better idea. C'mon!"

Usagi led Minako down a small path she'd clearly made for herself since moving in, along a steep hill and jumping the last few feet down some rocks, but the mansion had a private strip of beach all to itself. Or, if not private, at least hidden away.

"Usagi, this is amazing!" Minako said as the cool ocean air swept away all her sweat and any uncomfortable feelings the house had left on her.

"Isn't it?" she answered, stretching her arms out to the water and running in a few feet until the hem of her dress soaked through with salt water. "I love coming here!"

"Girl, same, if I had to live in a creepy haunted house, I'd always be at their private beach!"

Usagi giggled, splashing Minako, who laughed and jumped in as well, wading up until the bottoms of her jean shorts got wet. They splashed and played and kicked up streams of water in the surf, and Minako felt like she may have really made a friend.

"So, we definitely have to solve this ghost problem," Minako said later as they sat on the beach. "I'm thinking that I'm gonna try to get Kunzite involved. Do you know him? He's a lifeguard, and like, really hot?"

Usagi thought for a moment, listing her head to the side and tapping her lips with her finger. "I don't think so… but maybe I'm just not remembering the name."

"Anyway," Minako drew her knees up to her chest, "you can call some of your friends, too...do you have a phone?" She took out hers. "I don't have any service, still." She waved it around to see if she could grab a bar or two of service.

Usagi nodded, "Landline. It's spotty, but I'll give you the number."

"I'll be in touch!"

Minako left the mansion with a bounce in her step. Some haunted house high schoolers dared each other to go to! She'd just spent a very nice afternoon there and met a new friend. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her to grab dinner before heading back to her hotel. Maybe a place by the beach, where she could walk by the lifeguard stand and see if a certain someone was on duty…

Who needs Hawaii, after all? She had a mission! Mission Rescue Usagi From The Ghosts or At Least One Ghost That Definitely Haunts The Hell Out of Conway Mansion is a go!


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you from the bottom my cold, black heart to my beta who puts up with a lot, lbr

* * *

"I thought I told you not to go up there," Kunzite said, frowning slightly.

The next day was rather cool and cloudy, and the beach was less crowded, but that didn't stop Minako from scurrying down to lifeguard stand (after adjusting her bikini and lace cover-up just so) to tell Kunzite all about yesterday.

Minako rolled her eyes. "I _said_ I'd take it under advisement."

He sighed, leaning back against the lifeguard stand and crossing his arms. He was in a red windbreaker with the town's name across it, and his hair was down today - falling to just below his shoulders in pin-straight platinum strands, and Minako let herself be distracted by the way his hair complimented his broad shoulders as it shifted in the beach wind.

"- don't remember hearing it'd been sold," he was saying, and Minako snapped herself back to attention. "But I have been busy lifeguarding." Kunzite shifted his gaze back to the girl in front of him. "Speaking of which, my break is almost up."

"Well, did you want to join me on my mission or not?"

He sighed, shaking his head a little as he looked out at the ocean. "You mean do I want to spend my precious free time with a tourist I just met helping a clueless house sitter on an ill advised ghost-hunting mission?"

Minako pouted, crossing her arms under her breasts.

"Kuz, back to work!" a voice called from the tower.

Kunzite sighed again. "I'll meet you after work. Shake Shack, 6pm."

To her credit, Minako saved the victory whoop until Kunzite was (mostly) out of earshot.

* * *

"So what's your plan? Did you want to look into the history of the house or contact a temple or-"

"Seance," Minako said. "For sure!"

Kunzite paused, then pressed his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "A … seance?"

"Yup!" Minako paused only to exchange money for a milkshake at the window. "I thought we could buy supplies before we head up to the house."

"Su...pplies?"

"Yeah, hold on." Fishing her phone out of her straw purse with the non-milkshake hand, Minako dialed the number she'd saved the night before. A few shakey, stacticy rings later, Usagi's voice filtered through the line.

"Usagi! It's Minako! Listen, do you have… hold on…" She put the phone between the shoulder and her head, balanced the shake between her chest and arm, and dug in her purse for the list she'd made that morning after looking up seances on the internet (which made her practically an expert).

She felt warm fingers brush her arm as Kunzite took her milkshake away from her before she could drop it. Her flesh tingled where he'd touched, and for a moment her mind short-circuited.

"Minako? Are you there?" Usagi asked.

"Uh, yeah! Sorry! Do you have, let's see… candles, a black lace veil, a large wooden table, a radio we can set to static…"

"Well, I have lots of candles because the lights don't always work. We can go in the old dining room for a table, and I have a radio and most stations are static up here. A black lace veil might be more tricky…"

"Ok leave that to me. Now, listen, this important. Do you feel like the entity is malicious?"

"Delicious?" The connection was definitely terrible.

"No, m-a-l… like, mean? Bad? Evil?"

"Minako, until you said something I didn't even know there WAS an 'entity', let alone an evil one!" Even through the static Usagi sounded anxious and Minako had to laugh a little.

"Okay, okay. Well get out some salt just in case. We'll be there soon."

Minako clicked off her phone and glared at Kunzite who was taking a generous sip of her milkshake.

"That's mine!" She snatched it back and took a sip right on the same straw, still warm from his lips. "So, anyway, know where we can get some black lace veils?"

"What would you even need that for?"

"To WEAR so I look properly spooky of course!"

* * *

Kunzite managed to talk Minako out of searching the entire town for apropos seance attire, so her dream of rocking the Morticia Addams look was squashed. Oh well, the house didn't have air conditioning, so maybe her tank top and shorts were fine after all.

He insisted on driving up, in his cute little compact red Mazda that Minako instantly envisioned making out in. The road to the house was windy and overlooked the village and the seaside as they drove up - much different than the bunny trail from the beach that Minako had gone up the last time.

"So listen," Kunzite said finally, breaking the silence. "I need to do some more asking around, but I haven't heard anything about the mansion selling or having a caretaker."

"So what are you saying?" Minako twisted in her seat. "Do you think Usagi is the ghost? Whoooooo…." She waved her fingers.

Kunzite rolled his eyes. "I'm saying, this girl could be in trouble somehow. A runaway or a squatter, or -"

"A missing heiress!" Minako perked up. "No, not an heiress. A missing princess! An amnesiac missing princess! Whose family and… and heartbroken fiancé - a prince, obvi - are searching desperately for her! Meanwhile she ends up fixing up this old, haunted house having no idea who she really is…"

"Minako!"

She jumped a bit and shut her mouth. "Sorry." She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, glancing at Kunzite out of the corner of her eye. He looked as hot in jeans and a gray t-shirt as he did in swim trunks. "But it could be possible!"

He sighed. "So, I know a bit about this house. Just some things I've looked up and heard about."

"You do?" She tilted her head, smiled. "So you ARE into ghosts!"

"I'm 'into' history," he said. "It's my major."

"Ooh, cool! Where do you go to college?"

"Kyodai."

"Wow!"

He cleared his throat a bit, looking a bit unsure under her attention. "Anyway, the house only had one owner, a Mr. Joseph Conway back in Meiji. He came over from Europe to run a shipping company. He had a daughter -"

"A daughter! That must be the jilted lover! The ghost! What was her name?"

"Beryl."

Minako shivered.

Kunzite shrugged a bit. "To be honest, I could never find any records of Beryl Conway's death about the time she'd be a young woman, and of course if her fiancé left her before the wedding, there aren't any marriage records to give us his name. Of course, pre-war records are a mess on a good day. So who knows? But I want you to know that whole suicide could just be a story."

Minako's brow furrowed. "But you said-"

"I know what I said." He pulled off the road at the gated 'closed' sign and put it in park. "But it's just what they say around town."

"So why'd you tell it to me?"

He paused, not looking at her. Unbuckled his seat belt and opened the door. "Let's go."

* * *

The walk up the overgrown walkway was creepier in the encroaching darkness, but Minako couldn't help but feel a bit safer with Kunzite by her side. A few windows in the house were lit up; Usagi must be having a good electricity day, Minako thought.

Usagi greeted them at the door, shaking hands with Kunzite with that beautiful, friendly smile of hers. "Kunzite, hi! Minako's mentioned you!"

He smirked, side-glancing at Minako. "Has she?"

Minako blushed. "Just wondering if you knew each other! From school or something."

Usagi bit her lip and looked down at her feet. "I went to private school," she said. A soft, pale hand reached up to pull at one blonde pigtail nervously.

"Oh?" Minako said, curious about Usagi's background all of a sudden.

"Can we… can we not talk about school?" She made a face. "Not my favorite place."

"Okay, fair enough," Minako said. "Let's talk ghosts!"

"Far more pleasant a topic," Kunzite muttered.

Minako and Usagi set up candles all around the table, their flickering light doing little about the oppressive darkness of the dining room. The windows were wall to ceiling, overlooking the ocean, but they looked flat black in the dark night, with little orbs of reflection here and there off the decades of grime and dust coating the glass.

While Usagi lit the candles, Minako wandered over to the windows, looking at her own reflection, blurry and dull. A bit of movement outside caught her eye and she pressed her face to the glass, cupping her eyes in her hands. "There's someone out on that little beach!"

Kunzite and Usagi joined her. "Really?" Usagi said. "I never see anyone there. You can't get to it except from here."

"It's not safe to be out on the water this late," Kunzite the Lifeguard said. Minako grabbed the bottom of her tank top and started rubbing at the window, trying to get some grime off.

"Look, there-" She peered out again but the beach was empty. "He's gone."

She pressed her face to the glass again, the new cleaner view showing no footprints in the sand.

"Your imagination," Kunzite said, patting her shoulder. Minako huffed, despite the warmth that bloomed where this hand had touched.

"Anyway, the set-up looks perfect!" Minako said, turning back to the table.

"It looks like fire hazard," Kunzite observed.

"Do you want to do this or not?"

"I thought I made it clear I did not," he said.

"Okay but like-"

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this…"

"The things you'll do for a great set of tits, huh?" Minako said, tossing her hair with a wink. In the candlelight he blanched and blushed.

A soft 'ahem' behind them made them turn, to see Usagi holding a candelabra, the flames reflecting off her face, eyes luminous in the candlelight. In her white dress, with her pale skin and vulnerable eyes, she looked every bit the haunted heroine of a gothic romance. Minako wondered if maybe her missing princess story was so far-fetched after all.

"Welp!" Minako pulled out the head seat and sat down, holding her hands out palms up. "Let's get started!"

She shut her eyes. "Let's all join hands," she entoned.

Usagi sat next to her and placed her hand lightly in Minako's, then Kunzite huffed a bit before sitting on Minako's other side and putting his large palm over hers.

Minako curled her fingers around their hands, her heart in her throat at the warmth of Kunzite's skin. _Concentrate_! she told herself. _Ghosts_!

"I call upon the spirits in this house to make themselves known!"

Nothing happened. Kunzite coughed a little.

"All spirits in this house, please come forth! We raise our energy to you and ask you to appear!"

Usagi squeezed her hand encouragingly.

Minako opened one eyes, glanced around the room. She heaved a big sigh. "Okay, Usagi do you have that radio?"

Nodding, Usagi produced the radio which Minako set the highest frequency that played static. "Oh, spirits! Please use the power from this radio and the white noise of the static to send your messages from beyond the grave!"

The static lingered in the background of the room, the sound starting to undulate in Minako's ears, almost like the sound of the waves. It was hypnotizing, and she swore she heard some interruptions in the static, some garbled push of speech that made her sit up and grab the radio.

"Did you hear that?"

"... _c…_. _me_…"

Wide-eyed, the three of them leaned in closer, listening to the radio with their breath held. Even Kunzite's gaze was intense and focused on the black holes of the speaker.

"..._hase_… _me_…"

"Oh my god," Minako breathed.

"But here's my number! So call me maybe!" the radio belted out, as a station suddenly burst through the static.

Minako and Usagi screamed and tumbled backwards, and Kunzite let out a yelp, then glared.

"Dammit," Minako muttered, and then she turned and saw Usagi, giggling helplessly from where she'd landed on the floor.

She couldn't help a smile pulling at her lips. Well, at least something good came of their seance.

"Well I'm not giving up! Tomorrow I'm gonna come back and look for clues in the house! You up for that?"

Usagi nodded, still smiling.

Kunzite looked around the house critically. He had made sure to extinguish all the candles, and now, even with the lamps she had, the house still seemed dark and unsettling. "Usagi, why don't you stay in town? This house doesn't seem safe."

"I'm fine, I'm fine." She waved her hand like it was nothing.

"C'mon, come spend the night in the hotel with me!" Minako said. "We can have a sleepover, eat popcorn, watch pay-per-view…"

Usagi considered, looking over Minako's shoulder toward the walkway and Kunzite's parked car, barely in sight. "Sounds fun… but I don't have a bag packed or anything and I'm really tired. Raincheck? Actually, next time it rains, let me know. I haaaate this place in the rain."

As they hugged goodbye, Minako thought about Kunzite mentioning he thought Usagi was a runaway, or someone who might need help outside of ghost hunting. Well, no matter what, Minako would do what she could to cheer Usagi up. If hunting for clues got too spooky, they could always play on the beach!


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to my beta and my fandom friends! And everyone who has reviewed and commented, it means so so so so much to know what you think of this story!

* * *

The next day was a perfect beach day, but Minako did not regret hiking back up to the Conway house to see Usagi. The beach wasn't going anywhere, but her own ghost story to solve with her new friend was too good to pass up. Plus, Kunzite was super boring when he was at work, watching for drowning victims or whatever; she'd have to visit him later when he could give full attention where it belonged: on her.

"So, I was thinking we should explore this place!" Minako said, with zero care for the dilapidated condition of some areas of the house, or the way Usagi's eyes widened with intimidation and confusion at Minako's sudden enthusiasm.

"Let's start with the attic!" Minako declared, and Usagi visibly paled.

"No way!" she said. "Everyone knows attics are the creepiest places!"

"Exactly! The most likely place for a ghost. The site of evil convergence, as everyone knows, is basements, but attics are where sad lonely spirits relive their last moments until some intrepid ghost hunters - that's us - helps them move on!"

Usagi shuddered. "Well, this place doesn't have a basement, although there is a root cellar off the garden?"

Minako had to admit a root cellar sounded both intriguing and a bit too scary. She didn't want to find, like, a pile of bones or something out of a police novel. That would involve losing her cool around Usagi, after all. The attic was a much better bet; a floating white spectre she could totally handle!

"Well… maybe later," she said. "First, attic!"

Usagi moaned. "Nooo… Minako I really don't wanna…. Attic so scary…" she protested as Minako took her arm and tugged her along the hallway, only stopping dead when she realized she had no idea where the attic actually was.

"Um, how do we get up there?"

It took some cajoling (and promises of playing down on the mini beach later), but Usagi finally agreed to show Minako the small door that lead to the staircase up to the house's expansive attic. The opening in the attic floor was barely big enough for one person, but once they were up there the space was immense.

"Woah…" Minako murmured. Usagi whimpered, clutching at Minako from behind and burying her head in Minako's shoulder.

There were boarded up windows letting in what light they could through rotten edges and age cracks, and the sunlight fell in beams dancing with years and years of dust. In the shadows, it was a fest of creepy: from the clothes mannequin in the corner, to the chest by the window, to the cracked-faced doll leaning against a pile of books, its painted eyes smiling emptily at Minako.

"Let's get some light in here," Minako managed to say, striding confidently across the creaky floor to pull at one of the most pliant-looking window boards. She pulled a few times and the wood gave way, falling with a deafening thud that raised up so much dust the girls coughed for a few moments before recovering.

The window was dirty, rusted closed, but in its day Minako could tell it used to be beautiful, with a view of the ocean. She bent to pick up a fallen bench and it fit perfectly beneath the window ledge… a seat. "I bet this was the best place in the house to come and be alone," she murmured. She peered out the window as best she could. The walkway below was stone and weeds and a chill ran through her. "Do you think this was where Beryl jumped? Out this very window?"

Usagi covered her face with her hands, backing away. "I… I don't like this… I don't wanna be here…." She stumbled a bit on an old chair and caught herself. Minako turned toward her, blinking at the glint of some gold in the sunlight.

"What's that behind you?"

It was a frame, jammed behind an old sofa, and Minako tugged and tugged at it until half was revealed. She gasped. It was a portrait, of a stern looking western man with glinting brown eyes. "That must be Conway!" she said, waving Usagi over. The other girl walked with hesitant steps, peering over Minako's shoulder. "And that's Beryl!" Minako pointed to the girl sitting to Mr. Conway's left, hands in her lap. She had waves of red hair falling down her shoulders and was wearing a European-style gown. Her eyes were bottle green, still, after all these years of moldering in the attic, and seemed to stare out of the painting as if real. "It's only half the painting," she said.

Minako tugged the painting again, pulling with both hands, until it fell out from behind the sofa, falling face first on the floor. She picked the painting up, pushing it back to see the full picture.

And then she screamed.

There was another girl in the painting, on the other side of Mr. Conway. But Minako wouldn't see more than the ends of her long hair, as her entire face had been scratched out.

After a moment, Minako recovered from the shock. "Usagi, what do you make of this?" she asked. Then she looked around, and realized she was all alone in the spooky attic. "Usagi! You wuss!" she said, rolling her eyes. Clearly the girl had gotten scared and ran back down the stairwell.

Minako turned back to the picture, running her fingers over the ruined canvas where the other girl's face used to be. "Who are you?" she murmured.

Just then a strong wind blew through the window - the previously rusted-closed window - and Minako ran to the now-open window and looked through, and for a split second the same figure from the seance night stood on the mini beach, only this time he was pointing up at her. Then the wind was so strong it knocked her right down again, and she couldn't see a thing over her hair blowing into her face.

Then as quickly as it started, it was over. The window was closed. The small beach was empty. And Minako held a bundle of papers the wind had blown into her hand.

"Minako!" It wasn't Usagi's voice calling her. It was Kunzite's. Quickly, she shoved the papers in her bag (wasn't sure how the rule-abiding lifeguard would feel about technically stealing from the Conway attic) and hurried down the rickety steps.

"Hey!" she breezed at him, brushing the dust out of her hair. "I thought you'd be working today."

"Day off," he grunted, blue eyes looking up over her shoulder with a disapproving stare. "Were you snooping around in here?"

"Usagi let me in!" Minako insisted. "Then ran away when I found something kinda scary. Chicken."

"I saw her out in the garden, but I don't think she heard me when I called her," Kunzite said.

"Ah, so YOU are the one breaking and entering!" She punched him lightly in the arm and he rolled his eyes.

"I was… checking up on you, is all. I knew you'd do something stupid like walk around the rickety attic of a nearly condemned structure."

Minako put her hands to her heart. "Awww, you were worried about me."

"Don't read too much into it," he groused, heading out with Minako bubbling at his arm.

"You came all the way up here to look for me, what a good lifeguard, caring so deeply about a random tourist on your day off…"

"So do you want to hear what I found out, or not?" Kunzite said, later that evening over dinner on their romantic date.

Well, okay, it was takoyaki on a stand by the beach but Minako was counting it because it was technically dinner, and it was technically a date.

"Yes!"

"So while you were snooping around an attic like an impulsive idiot, I went to the main ward office to look at records."

"And?" She bit into the little ball of fried dough and octopus, not taking her eyes of Kunzite. And not only because he was extremely easy on the eyes.

"Richard Conway made a fortune in shipping from Japanese ports, but that's not why he came to live in Japan. Turns out, after his first wife died back in Europe, he married a Japanese woman who lived nearby this town. Misako. He built that whole house for her."

"Woah… I wonder if she was the woman with her face scratched out in the portrait?!"

"She died before the house was even finished."

"Well. Dang," Minako said. Maybe that was the ghost? Wandering the house she never got to enjoy?

"She had a daughter, too."

Minako snapped to attention. "Who did? The Japanese woman he married?"

Kunzite nodded. "Her name is obscured on the form, but she would've been in her teens when her mother died."

"Holy crap!" Minako said. "This keeps getting more and more complicated! Beryl had a stepsister. I wonder how things went for her after Beryl died…" She fished her cell phone out of her purse. "I wanna tell Usagi all this."

She dialed the number but the line just clicked, moaned, and went dead.

"Huh," Minako said, shaking her phone a bit.

"She did say phone service was spotty up there," Kunzite said, biting into his takoyaki.

"Yeah…." Minako let her eyes drift up to the mansion, obscured by the trees now.

* * *

That night, in her hotel room, Minako finally was able to examine the yellowed papers the mysterious wind had blown into her hand. They were all letters, addressed at the front to Miss Conway with the return address of Tokyo. She ran her fingers over the fancy, slightly archaic lettering.

Sitting cross legged, television on mute, she opened the first letter and began to read.

The letters started fairly straightforward; clearly they were from a man to the woman he was seeing (juicy! Minako thought) about how he was doing in Tokyo, setting up as a student at the newly minted western-style university there, filled with flowery words about how much he missed the recipient of the letters, and how she had his unending loyalty and love.

Here, Minako rolled her eyes. If this was, as she suspected, the fiancé who sent the jilted lover to suicide, he certainly wasn't nearly as loyal to Beryl as these letters made it seem.

She flipped past boring comments on the weather or descriptions of his living quarters, bit her cheek at the declarations of love, and watched as the letters got less conversational and more desperate.

_"I miss you more and more each day, and wonder if you've found something (or someone? I dare not even think this blasphemous thought, to wonder at your devotion) else to take your attention while I am gone. Not a single letter as come from you, although your sister assures me you are doing fine. Her letters are frequent but not nearly as desired as yours…"_

"Sister?" Minako sat up straighter, skimming the past letters for anything she might have missed. But no other letters mentioned the word until the last:

_"I received a letter from your sister, Beryl, again today, and every time I see the return address I think it's from you until I open it and despair. She says you say I'm not welcome at Conway House anymore, that you've decided I'm no longer worthy of your affections. It's a strange sort of feeling to almost believe her… but when I remember our times in the garden I know this cannot be. I'm deeply worried for you. From now on, I'm saving every penny for a ticket home to see you in person. If you will no longer have me, I wish to hear it from your sweet lips, to be in your presence one last time."_

And it ended.

"Your _sister_, Beryl?"

Well. Shit.

So these letters were to Conway's stepdaughter! Minako realized she'd been so focused on the meat of the letter she hadn't bothered to even check the salutation, and half the time it'd been to "my darling" or "my dearest" or something equally as purple, but when he did write her name he wrote "Usako."

"Usako," Minako said out loud. The other sister. She pulled the letters closer and read the man's return address at the school in Tokyo. The kanji of his surname, she guessed, would be pronounced 'Chiba'. He signed his letters in kana script - Mamoru.

Okay it was probably time to admit to Kunzite she stole those letters, and get Mr. History Major at Kyoto University to help her out with some digging.


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks so much to my beta and friends! And everyone who commented, liked, gave this fic a chance even if it wasn't their usual read. I'm so grateful to all of you!

* * *

The next day Minako woke to rain pounding on her window and a message from Kunzite (she made a mental note to change his name from 'Hot Lifeguard' in her phone, lest he see) saying the beach was closed for safety reasons - giving him another day off.

_Well, better now than never,_ Minako thought, scooping up the letters and putting them in her purse. She texted him back, "lets meet".

Kunzite put the letters down gently on the cafe table and frowned. "And they just end there?"

Minako nodded. "From the dates it's right around the time the house was occupied by the Conways, so this person must be mixed up in their story somehow. Don't you think?"

Kunzite looked outside the window at the blowing wind, still frowning. "Ideally this would involve a trip to Tokyo to investigate the actual university records in person but…"

"Yikes, that sounds like a lot of work. Isn't there some creepy old lady at a shrine you can ask or something?"

Kunzite studiously ignored her suggestion, still thoughtfully looking at the letters. "Prewar records might be sketchy, but there is a professor at Tokyo University who might be able to look up Meiji-era student records at Waseda." He pulled out his phone. "Let me contact her."

Minako stood up, suddenly feeling restless. "Meanwhile I should go check on Usagi-"

Suddenly his hand reached out and curled around hers, pulling her up short and stopping her heart for a moment with the warmth of his fingers and the size of his large hand over hers.

"No," he said firmly. "That place is not safe in this weather."

Thunder was rumbling in the distance. Minako anxiously remembered Usagi's sorrowful face. _"I hate this place in the rain..."_

"All the more reason to check on her!" Minako insisted and Kunzite sighed.

"We'll go together. Later." He carefully folded the letters into his pocket. "For now let me see what I find out about this Chiba Mamoru. And you…" He sighed again. "You just try to stay out of trouble for an hour or so, okay?"

"No promises!"

* * *

So Minako found herself in the absolute last place she'd ever expect to be on her vacation.

The library didn't even have the courtesy of being dark and old, with an eerily pale librarian in an old-style kimono, shuffling Minako to the dark basement to reams of moldering newspapers to sort through.

No, the town library was housed in a modern, plain building with buzzing fluorescent lights, a children's story hour going on in the corner (crowded due to the rainy day), and some busy young-looking librarians in smart business suits clicking on computer keypads who barely glanced at Minako when she asked:

"Uh… is there a way to see, like, old newspapers and stuff?"

And that's how she found herself, yawning, scrolling through microfiche on a clumsy white machine, wishing she was doing something funner, like snooping around the house's creepy closets for clues with Usagi. Or making out in a closet with Kunzite. Something more fun involving a closet anyway.

"Do you have anything on the Conways?" she finally asked, marching back to the librarian and interrupting.

The woman seemed to think for a moment, and then said, "The Conway estate donated some money to the library funding back in our old building prewar. There is a blurb about it in our commemoration book…" Minako followed her back into the stacks and was handed a large, heavy, leather-bound book published by the library foundation back in the 1950s. As Minako used her volleyball muscles to hold the book still, the librarian flipped back a few hundred pages to point a manicured fingernail at a small blurb about the old library and the Conway family.

She then jumped as Minako dropped the book with a wide-eyed gasp. "Excuse me, miss! This book is very old and imp-"

But Minako ignored her scolding, fumbling with her phone with shaking hands to snap a photo of the portrait that was reproduced on the page. The portrait from the attic, but this time the youngest Conway daughter's face wasn't scratched out. It was there, smiling kindly, and terrifyingly familiar.

She fled the library, not caring about the driving rain, fingers shaking as she dialed Kunzite.

"Did you get my texts?" he asked. "My friend found Chiba's matriculation records at the university but they end abruptly after his first year. No record of his graduating, or any jobs or family after that. I don't know if the records are missing or what but-"

"Kunzite, I'm heading up to the house!" she interrupted, brushing water away from her soaked bangs.

"Minako! Are you crazy? The storm is just getting worse-"

"I don't care! Usagi's in danger and I have to get to her! I texted you a picture, it explains everything!"

"Minako, wait for me okay? Just don't -"

She hung up and pocketed the phone, concentrating instead of fighting the wind and heading up to the hill by the water, where the Conway house crouched like a demon in the growing dark.

* * *

"Usagi!" Minako burst through the door, which almost fell off its hinges in the howling wind. "Usagi!" She stamped through the house, using her (rapidly dying) phone as a flashlight, calling for her friend, the friend whose face had looked out at her from a portrait over a century old. The friend who might be dead, but still certainly needed her help.

Minako's voice echoed back to her, the only sound other than the storm and creak of the wood as the house shuddered in the wind.

She was reminded of the feeling she'd gotten that first day - when the door opened to a whispering, dank, evil rush of danger. Without Usagi's sunny aura to keep it at bay, the swirling miasma left behind by whatever awful things had happened in this house was back - and with a vengeance.

Steeling herself, Minako climbed up to the attic, exponentially more spooky in the evening storm than the bright, sunshiny day she and Usagi had explored it last.

The attic was empty, the window from before showing a cauldron of a sea, crashing on the mini beach shore. And there - again - was the figure.

Without even thinking, Minako left the house and took off toward the shore. "Who are you?!" she called, the wind stealing her words as the seaspray nearly blinded her. "Where's Usagi?" she demanded, blinking through the rain. The figure seemed to waver and flicker in front of her, then he reached out and everything went black.

The storm was over. The sun was shining. Minako sat up, looking around her at the mansion, which looked like new in the bright sun.

The gardens were tended and lovely, the paint white and new, and the fresh scents of spring on the air. Stumbling up, disoriented, Minako ran through the garden and stopped short when she saw Usagi. Her friend smiled and stood from where she was standing in the bramble… only the bramble wasn't bramble anymore-it was lines of rose bushes, blooming pink and red and yellow.

"Usagi yo-" Minako reached out to touch her arm, but it went right through it. Not as if Usagi was a ghost, but as if she was solid and real, and Minako's hand was smoke.

"Usagi!" another voice called out and Minako had to stifle a scream as Beryl sashayed into view. Her green dress matched her eyes, her red hair gleamed in the sun and she was almost breathtakingly lovely. But somehow Minako felt sick looking at her.

"You'll never guess what news!" Beryl said, face aglow.

"Have you heard from Mamoru?" Usagi asked, pulling her hand away from where it was cradling a rose bloom and nicking herself on a thorn. She put her finger in her mouth with a cringe.

Beryl laughed. "Maybe. Maybe not. Have you?"

Usagi averted her gaze, pinching at the small wound on her finger.

"No matter," Beryl continued. "My news does involve our dear Mamoru, so you'll want to hear it."

Instinctively, Minako put herself between Usagi and Beryl, protectively covering the smaller girl. But it was like a smokescreen; as far as the sisters were concerned, Minako wasn't even there.

"Father has given me permission - finally - to marry him, even though he's Japanese!" Beryl exclaimed, pressing her hands together in delight.

"Beryl, Mamoru has promised to marry me," Usagi said, and Minako was proud her voice was strong and clear, without a tremble, although she sensed Usagi was shaking with worry.

"Pfft, because he thought he couldn't have me, and he had to get our money somehow," Beryl said. "Think of it! He'll have the woman he really wants and the Conway fortune! I can't wait to tell him!"

"Are you going to Tokyo?" Usagi hurried to her stepsister's side, grabbed Beryl's hand. The other woman shook it off with a sneer.

"Take me with you!" Usagi said. "Please! We can talk to Mamo-chan together, I'll-"

"Stop calling him that," Beryl snapped. "Once he's my husband we're leaving this pathetic little island and making our home elsewhere. You'd be best to forget him."

Usagi scowled and grabbed at Beryl again, but the sounds of horses and wheels made them both turn.

"My ride is here," Beryl smirked, walking to the carriage with a smug smile. "Don't worry, little sister, I'll make sure you are invited to the wedding."

Minako turned to comfort Usagi, but the girl blurred before her eyes and a dizzying moment later she was in place both familiar and unfamiliar at once. It was Tokyo… but not. The streets were cobblestone and construction was everywhere, wooden houses and dinging streetcars and people in various dress - kimono and yukata and strange old-fashioned western suits. Tokyo of a hundred years before…

Her eyes found a familiar figure right away: Beryl, walking through the streets, her eyes darting around in a way that Minako recognized immediately - someone unused to the city but trying to appear cosmopolitan. She saw it all the time on tourists even in the Tokyo she was used to.

"Mamoru!" Beryl waved, and a young man looked up from where he was walking with other students. Like the others, he was dressed in western clothing, a tie and white shirt. When he saw Beryl, his eyes widened and he ran to her, slinging his bag across his shoulder.

"Beryl! Uh, Miss Conway," he corrected, running a hand through his hair. Although Beryl was tall, he was taller, and, Minako had to admit, ridiculously good-looking, although he had nothing on Kunzite. "What news from home?" he said, searching her eyes. "Is everything okay with Usako?"

"She's fine," Beryl waved her hand dismissively. "I came to talk to you about father!"

"Is he alright?" Mamoru still looked concerned.

"He's fine, too!" Beryl said, sounding exasperated. "The only one you haven't asked about is standing right before you!"

"My apologies, Beryl." He seemed more relaxed now. "How goes the fair lady of the house?"

"Better than ever," she answered, "as I have the most glorious news! Father has given us permission to marry!"

He blinked and Minako watched the confusion clouding his eyes. "Us?"

"You and me!" she said. "Finally! We can be wed as soon as summer if we play our cards right. And go to Europe to honeymoon and oh, Mamoru, it'll be wonderful!" She took his hands in hers and practically glowed at him.

A murmur arose and Minako realized she wasn't the only one watching this exchange with intense curiosity, and Mamoru also glanced at the gaggle of students who'd come to watch his interaction with the western beauty. Clearing his throat, he pulled on Beryl's hand.

"Is there somewhere we can go to discuss this privately?"

Minako followed them through a back alley and down the riverbank, where the Sumida River flowed by them, large as ever but cleaner than Minako remembered. They stood on a makeshift walkway created for unloading building supplies from boats, free from prying eyes.

"Mamoru?"

He dropped her hands, faced her with a mix of mortification and pity in his eyes. "Beryl, I'm… so sorry if I gave you the impression that I considered you anything but a valued friend."

"I don't understand."

"Beryl, you know I'm engaged to your sister," he said, still looking at her with growing concern.

"Well, obviously… everyone knew… you were holding yourself back from me. Because of our differences. But it doesn't matter now!" She reached out, grabbed his hands again. "Mamoru, you can finally have who you want!" Her eyes were wild.

Gently, he took his hands from hers, swallowed hard. "I want Usagi."

"No!" Beryl said, shaking her head in disbelief. "You don't have to settle for her anymore! Don't you see?! You can have me! Like we always wanted! You and me together forever!"

Mamoru took a step back, looking at her like he'd never seen her before. "Beryl…"

"No," she said, falling to her knees. Her hands clenched in her dress. "No! You're mine!"

"Beryl, I'm sorry."

"You're mine or you're no one's!"

"Mamoru look out!" Minako's words were empty air, and Beryl threw the rock without even looking, in a fury, but her aim was tragically accurate. It hit his skull with a sickening crack and he fell to the ground unconscious.

Minako muffled a scream with her hand at the blood pooling under his head. "Help him!" she cried. "Oh god, someone help!"

Her face a mask of grief and rage, Beryl grabbed his shoulders and shoved him into the water, bookbag and all.

"Stop!" Minako was no lifeguard, but she knew enough that an unconscious person weighed down with school books was no match against the swirling waters of the Sumida.

Breathing heavily, her eyes wild with panic now, rather than anger, Beryl hurried washed the blood off her hands in the river, looking around for witnesses. But other than Minako, a shadow separated by decades, no one had seen.

The attic. It didn't look at all like before. It was sunny and lovely and warm. There was a carpet and a bookshelf and that beautiful, large window overlooking the beach.

Usagi sat in front of it, in her white dress, knees drawn to her chest, eyes staring listlessly at the ocean below.

Minako reached out to touch her, feeling something like panic in her throat.

"I've returned," Beryl entered the room like a whirlwind, making Usagi sit up with expectation in her eyes.

"Do I owe you congratulations?" Usagi said, voice tight and eyes challenging.

Beryl tossed her hair, hands shaking slightly. "No, you do not."

For a moment Usagi's eyes shone but Beryl continued.

"He's married already." She shook her head, sadly. "Found a girl in Tokyo. Worldly, sophisticated. He didn't realize he could have me, so, just like with you, he found someone to distract himself. She's no uneducated country bumpkin who can't even pass grammar school, so she's better than you, but she's no legitimate daughter of a millionaire, either, so she's a worse choice than me. But he's honoring his marriage vows, and one can hardly blame him for that."

"She's lying!" Minako cried, at the same Usagi said, "You're lying."

Beryl's eyes narrowed into Usagi's clear, steady gaze. "You're lying," she repeated, and she stood up from the window seat. "And I'm going to Tokyo to talk to him myself." She made to sweep by her sister, but Beryl grabbed her arm.

"Like hell you are!" Her nails dug into Usagi's skin, and Minako cringed. But Usagi didn't cower.

"I am! You can't stop me. If he's married already, so be it, but he can tell me himself." Usagi tried to yank her arm free.

"Leave well enough alone!" she hissed, pulling Usagi closer. "As it is, you'd be lucky to get any marriage proposal now, damaged goods that you are!"

Usagi's eyes widened and Beryl laughed. It was an awful sound.

"You think I don't know?" Beryl said. "What you got up to in the gardens with that boy, pulling a marriage proposal out of a cheap dallance?"

The sound of Usagi's hand hitting Beryl's face sent a victory thrill through Minako.

"I'm going to find him!" Usagi promised, looking at Beryl with steel in her eyes. "No matter what it takes."

Beryl paled, and grabbed Usagi's arm. "No you won't!" She pushed her further back against the window frame, and Minako watched a dawning horror snake through the smaller girl's eyes.

Minako rushed to stop it, to help, but her arms were like nothing, sailing right through Beryl as she shoved Usagi out the window, down, down, down to the waiting rocks below.

A scream was piercing the air and it took a while for Minako to realize it was hers.


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks for sticking with me during this fun experiment! I hope you enjoyed the story!

Thanks to my beta!

* * *

A crash of thunder made Minako start awake, heart pounding and Usagi's name in her throat. The storm was still raging, the ghostly figure still standing next to Minako. She blinked at him, finally recognizing his face.

"You're Mamoru," she said, and he nodded. "You know you're dead, right?" He nodded again, then they both turned as Kunzite ran up, calling for Minako.

"Please tell me YOU aren't a ghost!" Minako said, as Kunzite caught her in a relieved hug.

"I don't think so, but after your text, nothing would surprise me."

"It's her, isn't it?" Minako said, turning to Mamoru. "Usagi. She's the ghost of Conway Hall."

The wind was whipping her dress and her hair, tugging on Kunzite's windbreaker and sending seawater spraying through the air, but it didn't so much as flutter Mamoru's dark bangs.

"Yes," he said, and his voice was part of the wind, there and not there all at once.

"Usagi didn't jump!" Minako cried. "She was pushed!"

"I know," Mamoru said.

Minako looked at him. "The night of the seance… that was you. And the letters… that was you, too."

He nodded, eyes sad and distant. "I can go no further than this beach."

Minako turned toward the house, feeling sick with fear at the broken-down, rotten wood shaking in the screaming wind. "Usagi is still in there!"

"She can't leave," Mamoru said. "I can't reach her. No one can ever reach her."

"Well, I can go in!"

"Minako, are you crazy?!" Kunzite grabbed her arm. "You aren't undead and can actually be killed!"

She whirled on him. "Don't you see?! Her parents died, her stepfather let her sister claim her fiancé, Beryl manipulated and isolated her for years, and finally murdered her! She's been left all alone, nobody ever came! Well, I'm not going to abandon her!"

Kunzite grabbed her arms, pulling her toward him. "No! Minako, no, I can't let you go in that house! It's too dangerous!" He looked at her with intensity in those too-blue eyes.

She tried to yank herself away but he was too strong. "Let me go! I have to help her!"

"Look at it! The house is falling down in this storm!"

"If the house falls, what happens to Usagi?" Minako said, feeling her very soul shake with the fear of the answer. She'll be lost. Forever.

The wind whistled, and house groaned, a sound Minako heard in her bones. And then Kunzite was being pulled back, Mamoru's ghostly hands wrapped around Kunzite's elbows.

"You bastard!" Kunzite screamed. "Let me go!"

Mamoru met Minako's eyes and nodded. "Good luck," he said.

Impulsively, Minako stepped forward and pressed her lips to Kunzite's. His mouth was warm, dry, and pliable beneath her lips. "If I die, I wanna make sure I did that first," she murmured against his mouth, by way of apology. Ignoring the shudder in his breath, she grabbed the letters from his jacket pocket, and turned and ran toward the house.

* * *

The sobs were everywhere, deafeningly loud, and echoing through the empty, rotting walls all around her. Wrenching, heartbreaking weeping, so loud Minako had to cover her ears. "USAGI!" she cried.

And the sobbing stopped abruptly. And her ears rang in the silence. And there sat Usagi, cowering in a corner, arms crossed over head.

"Usagi?" Minako crept toward her. "Are you okay?"

"The storm is scary," she said, looking up. Minako reeled in shock a bit at Usagi's appearance. Gone was the exuberant, silly girl she'd befriended and instead the girl's eyes were dull, her hair falling in strings around her face. Minako could swear she saw the faded patterns of the wallpaper through Usagi's back.

She swallowed down her fear, kneeling in front of the dead girl, who was fading away right before her eyes.

"Usagi, you are the ghost," Minako whispered.

"I'm all alone here," was all Usagi would say.

Desperately, Minako grabbed her hands, cringing at how ice cold they were, how light-as-air. Her fingers were skeletal, skin peeling back from the tips. "You aren't alone! Usagi! I'm here!"

Then she pulled one hand free to shove the letters into what was left of Usagi's hands. "And Mamoru! He didn't leave you, Usagi! He wrote you… Usako? Right? That's what he called you." Minako was yelling over the wind, over the lump in her throat. "Beryl hid them! She hid his letters to you, and I'm sure she never sent the ones you wrote to him." Those she probably destroyed, but some sick part of Beryl's mind couldn't bare to part with Mamoru's handwriting, his words of love and devotion - even if they weren't written to her.

The house shook with a clap of thunder, the wood was bending, shaking in the wind. The roof quaked.

"He didn't leave you Usagi! He loved you! He just… he died. He was killed."

Usagi shook her head, covering her ears with her hands. She flickered.

"Minako!" Kunzite's voice sounded far away, floating to her through the broken windows. "You have to get out of there! It's flooding!"

"We're coming!" she called back, reaching for Usagi's hand. It slipped through hers like water. "You have to come out, Usagi! You have to leave with me!"

The crash was deafening, the ceiling above them crumbling, barely missing hitting Minako's shoulder. Usagi looked at her in panic. "This isn't safe! You have to go!" the ghost insisted, but Minako remained stubborn.

"I am not going to leave you," she said, firmly. "For once, someone will not leave you."

A tear ran down Usagi's cheek, red as blood.

"But this is no home for you," Minako said. "Let's leave together. He's waiting for you."

There was another crash and Usagi yelped. The door was now blocked, the rain falling in through holes in the roof. Already there were inches of cold water on the floor. Mamoru's letters floated away, ink melting together as the water carried them away, just as it had his body all those years ago.

The upstairs had fallen into the downstairs, all doors were blocked. The house was falling apart, just like the legend was. Just like the story that everyone had gotten so, so wrong.

"We're trapped," Minako breathed. She squeezed her eyes shut. This is it, she thought. This is how I die. At least I got to kiss Kunzite goodbye.

"The attic window!" Usagi said, breaking through Minako's thoughts. "That's the only way!"

The storm seemed to settle, or at least fade the background as Usagi took Minako's hand. The attic stairs fell like puzzle pieces, and together they walked toward the room where Usagi breathed her last, to the broken window that was their freedom.

Now it lay one story lower to the ground, empty and beaconing, the soggy ground within safe landing distance. Minako squeezed Usagi's hand. "After you," she said.

They jumped together, and the last thing Minako saw was the brightest flash of lightning behind her eyelids.

* * *

"Minako! Minako!"

Blue. Red. Blue. Red. A loud wailing sound. And Kunzite's voice.

"Minako, wake up!"

Groaning, Minako sat up, pressing her hand to her head. She realized the storm was over, the full moon breaking through the clouds to spill its silvery light over the beach. The wailing sound was sirens, the flashing red and blue were emergency vehicles that had driven up to the house… no. To the rubble.

The house was gone.

"Are you okay?" Kunzite's face hovered over her, handsome brow furrowed in worry.

"Nothing that won't heal," she murmured, flexing her arms and moving her feet. "Where's Usagi?!"

Kunzite shook his head slowly. "I don't know, Minako. She's gone. So is he." His arm came around her back, settling gently underneath her arm. "Can you stand?"

Nodding, Minako allowed Kunzite to pull her slowly to her feet. Then, his warm, large hand settled on the back of her head and his lips were on hers, urgent and affirming and desperate. Minako wound her arms around his neck, pulling him closer, hands grasping the slippery fabric of his windbreaker, catching stands of white-blond hair under her palms.

"I'm glad you're okay," he said, mouth against her cheek.

Minako realized they were hidden from view by the small mini-beach. "I don't feel like answering questions," she murmured, eyes shifting to the moving figures and flashlights that were coming around from the front the rubble.

"I agree," Kunzite muttered, and together they stumbled down the back pathway, slipping on the wet mud and jumping the last few feet to the rocks of the jetty.

And there was Usagi, standing in the surf. Of the main beach, the real beach. Off the property of the house.

Minako shouted her name and ran, and before she knew it was wrapped in a hug with the her friend- warm, solid, real. Minako pulled back and looked at Usagi - she looked good. As good or better than when Minako first met her, stumbling out of the garden and wandering into the land of the living - where Usagi didn't belong, but where Minako was able to reach her.

Salt stung Minako's throat. Even though Usagi had died a century ago, Minako felt her loss in a very real, painful way. "I guess… this is goodbye," she managed.

"Thank you," Usagi said, eyes shining with tears.

"Usako!" Mamoru appeared, running from the mini-beach the same way Minako and Kunzite had, only his feet didn't leave prints in the mud, he didn't need to jump the jetty, gliding down in the moonlight.

Usagi ran to him and as they embraced they faded slightly; Minako could see the ocean dancing through their bodies as they kissed.

"Thank you for waiting for me," Usagi said. Mamoru's hand brushed her hair from her face, his lips pressed to her forehead.

"Do you think I'd let something as simple as death separate us?" he murmured, mouth to hers, hand tightening on her lower back.

Kunzite leaned down to Minako's ear. "Should we be watching this?"

"Shhh!" she swatted him, leaning forward to hear the couple better.

She watched as Mamoru bent Usagi backward slightly, as if in a ghostly dance to music only they could hear, and he kissed her with a passion that, honestly, surprised Minako considering they were both technically dead.

She blinked, and they were gone. The moonlight was alone on the water, she and Kunzite left landing side by side on the beach.

Blinking rapidly, Minako reached out and grabbed Kunzite's hand, tightly. "She's really gone," she murmured.

For a moment Kunzite was silent beside her. Then he spoke, softly. "So, what do we do?"

Minako squeezed his hand, the feel of his lips still tingling on hers.

"We live."


End file.
